Last Week's Thrifty Moves

After a busy project filled Saturday I was a lazy ol' bum Sunday morning.  I stayed in bed until 8:00 and didn't even get dressed until noon.  I did wash the breakfast dishes (my daughters made breakfast) and listed four new items in my Etsy shop, however.

Sunday afternoon I deep cleaned the coop adding the manure and bedding along with some water to our compost bin.  The girls seemed pretty happy with their freshly cleaned home and lots of fluffy bedding in their nests to lay me some more eggs in. J

I harvested a bunch of tomatoes (I shared some with the chickens), jalapeños and bell peppers from the garden.  I made my first batch of jalapeño jelly.

I sold the last two dozen of our surplus eggs.  One more dozen and the girls will have earned their first bag of feed.

I veered off course from our meal plan again in order to use up some things before they got old and freezer burned.  I had two partial packages of hamburger buns, a cup of tomato sauce and a package of ground beef in the freezer to use up so I decided to make sloppy joes.  We used up lots of leftover odds and ends in the refrigerator, freezer and pantry.

I cleared out the crisper drawer and made a simple salad with what was left.  Our homegrown tomatoes really made it wonderful.  There is just nothing like the flavor of your own garden tomatoes.

The youngest and I did maintenance on a couple of our box fans.

It rained enough last week that I did not need to water the lawn or the garden. It was also cool enough we did not need to use the A/C units.

I used caulk I bought on sale at Home Depot to caulk all of our windows.

After I got off work on Friday we headed off to the Habitat For Humanity Thrift Store and found a few things to use on projects around the house.  Insulation for the ceiling in the chicken coop for $4, a porcelain light fixture for the chicken coop for $1 and a vent to replace the one missing on the side of our house for $3.  The best thing I found was a Kohler china sink in fabulous condition for our upstairs bathroom for $15.  Ours is chipped and rusted through so it is in desperate need of replacement.

Saturday morning the oldest and I insulated our overhead garage door which is something I've want to do for years.  I bought eight foam panels at Home Depot Friday night for $3.68 each.  They sell a kit for $80 but our door is slightly larger than the one the kit is made for so that was a no go.  Plus it is expensive.  We cut the panels ourselves and fit them inside the panels of the garage door.  Then we filled in the seams with the leftover can of blow foam we used on our entry door the week before.

We went to a free classic car show and out to lunch.  My youngest earned a gift certificate for a free lunch so I only had to pay for lunch for myself and my oldest.  The restaurant was having a special so our lunches were only $5.99 each.

While working on the overhead garage door I had cut my finger again on the broken cable that opens the door.  I had looked for a replacement at Home Depot Friday but they didn't have one.  On the way home from the car show I stopped in and bought two lengths of chain four feet long and a package of S hooks.  When we got home the youngest and I replace the nasty cable and it works like a dream.  I am so happy about this!

I'll be posting more about our garage door upgrade this week.

How thrifty were you last week?